Archives - 19 September 2017, Tuesday

Volkswagen ID electric car concept, 2016 Paris auto show Enlarge Photo Volkswagen has a critical year coming in 2020, when the German brand will launch two incredibly important vehicles nearly back-to-back. The next-generation Volkswagen Golf will arrive that year, and then, one month...

John Voelcker Sep 19, 2017 Follow John Add to circle Proterra Catalyst electric bus Enlarge Photo The laws of physics tend to be immutable, at least until you get into esoteric disciplines like quantum science. In the case of electric vehicles, one law provides that higher energy capa...

John Voelcker Sep 19, 2017 Follow John Add to circle BYD e6 electric taxi in service in Shenzhen, China Enlarge Photo It was quaint and adorable when Norway did it, saying it would end sales of cars with internal-combustion engines by 2025. The Netherlands followed suit, with little f...

California state capitol, Sacramento Enlarge Photo For 50 years, the state of California has led the United States when it comes to renewable energy and electric cars. The state features many programs to incentivize electric-car ownership, and 29 percent of the state's 2016 energy pro...

Tesla is clearly the target for the Porsche Mission E, which is interesting when you think about it. The Model S has only been on sale for about 5 years but already it has become enough of a thorn in Porsche’s side that the German company is investing €700 million to build a new produ...

The Utah-based company Nikola Motor Company and German auto components supplier Bosch are teaming up to build the Nikola One and Nikola Two long-haul hydrogen-electric truck models to market by 2021 By 2021, Nikola Motor Company will bring to market the Nikola One and Two, a class 8 h...

John Voelcker Sep 19, 2017 Follow John Add to circle 2017 Volkswagen e-Golf Enlarge Photo Model years can be confusing: the 2017 Volkswagen e-Golf electric car just went on sale this month, at a time when some other makers have already rolled out 2018 models. The 2017 Chevrolet Bolt E...

Silicon Valley-based electric bus manufacturer Proterra Inc. announced it has set a world record for driving the longest distance ever traveled with an electric vehicle on a single charge at the Navistar Proving Grounds in New Carlisle, Indiana. Proterra’s 40-foot Catalyst E2 max trav...

"We want to make electric transport the new normal. There are two fundamental problems to be addressed. Transport is still the fastest growing area of carbon emissions, as the shift to electric vehicles is not happening fast enough; and mass system change, even with Government interve...

Volkswagen is working on an aggressive two-year timeline to debut its next-generation Golf and I.D. hatchback. At the Frankfurt Motor Show, company executives touted plans to switch the Golf family to a new model generation by 2020, with the electric I.D. hatch, slated to follow a mon...

The second wave of electric vehicles from Nissan will utilize a common platform, much like Tesla’s skateboard battery design, Faraday Future’s Variable Platform Architecture , Volkswagen’s MEB platform , and a handful of others that followed suit. Nissan will develop four common platf...

With 400 new plug-in electric vehicles registered last month in Switzerland , registrations were up 7%, with year-to-date number now up 40% YoY to 4,346 units. The Renault Zoe is benefiting from the ZE 40 version, having registered 105 units. The French hatchback was followed by Opel ...

Nikola and Bosch partner on hydrogen-electric Class-8 long-haul truck; dual-motor commercial-vehicle eAxle 19 September 2017 Nikola Motor Company is partnering with Bosch on the development of its hydrogen-fuel-cell range-extended electric Class 8 long-haul truck, unveiled as a protot...

But not to pick on one brand, the same phenomenon can be generally true for any power plug-in hybrid and other brands implying one may eat cake and have it too skirt the edge of accuracy. Actually, one may not in the same drive enjoy max range and mpg while enjoying amazing 0-60 times...

California Legislature passes $1.5B California Clean Air Initiative to cut emissions; $895M for mobile sources 19 September 2017 The California state legislature has passed a set of bills (AB 134 and AB 109 ) providing $895 million towards programs that will reduce air pollution from ...

The folks at Lyft have been pondering the congestion problem in Los Angeles and they think they have a better — and far less expensive — solution LA’s chronic traffic woes. They propose fewer but more efficient lanes that take advantage of autonomous driving technology. Lyft, in coope...